In his latest lawsuit against Nazareth, borough officer Fred Lahovski describes a police department and municipal administration he claims is rife with discrimination and retaliatory practices.

The police officer, reinstated to the force this summer after winning the appeal for his September 2012 firing, is requesting a jury trial in a civil suit that alleges several officials in the borough acted unconstitutionally in official business.

Lahovski says his vocal response to the allegedly hostile atmosphere made him a target, eventually leading to his termination.

Named in the suit, filed Tuesday, are former Mayor Fred Daugherty Jr. and former council members Jack Herbst, William Matz and Cynthia Werner. He's also suing police Chief Thomas Trachta, Mayor Carl Strye Jr. and council members Larry Stoudt, Carl Fischl, Michael Kopach, Frank Maurek, Charles Donello and Daniel Chiavaroli.

Lahovski is seeking $150,000 in damages, a declaration by borough officials that they violated the officer's civil rights and the implementation of training procedures that would ensure that elected officials no longer violate workers' civil rights.

The lawsuit details a pervasive atmosphere that included an "openly hostile and insulting attitude against employees and potential employees of the Nazareth Police Department."

Police officers targets of discrimination, suit says

On multiple occasions in the borough, the department hired officers who were later targeted or harassed because of their race, gender or sexual orientation, according to the lawsuit. Lahovski, who was a prominent member of the borough police union, said he often criticized the department for the alleged behavior.

The department's hiring of Vanessa Cruz-Smith marked the first time a woman and a Puerto Rican was brought into the ranks, according to the lawsuit.

Cruz-Smith, who was fired in May 2009, rehired and then fired again in December 2010, was allegedly told not to "advertise" her ethnicity and notified with a racial slur that Latinos were not common in the borough.

Lahovski said he was targeted by officials when he offered to testify for Cruz-Smith in a lawsuit she filed against the borough regarding the alleged discrimination.

In 2010, Lahovski said Patrolman Daniel Hall was hired and once officials learned he was gay, many used homophobic slurs behind the officer's back. Lahovski said former councilman Herbst tried to have Hall fired by filing a false report against the officer, which Lahovski said he later helped disprove.

Officer Joseph Nunes, hired in 2012, also endured racial discrimination, according to the civil suit, when he was told he'd be subject to additional background checks and questions that non-minority officers never had to tolerate.

The lawsuit says officer Connie McGinniss, hired July 2012, was told she failed a pistol range qualification test after the instructor received direct orders from the police chief.

Chief refuses to investigate cop allegedly selling drugs, suit says

The lawsuit also details how despite audio recordings and eyewitness testimony from a reliable confidential informant, an unnamed borough officer accused of selling drugs in a bar was never investigated by the police department. Lahovski said he received information about officer's involvement in the drug sales following a two-year investigation in narcotic sales at borough nuisance bars.

When he brought the information to Trachta, Lahovski said the chief declined to do anything, saying he refused to rely on "loose street information." Lahovski said the chief maintained his position even after the officer arranged for him to speak with the confidential informant.

Lahovski said he believed subsequent discipline from the chief was directed linked to the officer's insistent attempts to have the matter investigated further — which he said were ultimately done in vain.

View full sizeCynthia Werner, Jack Herbst, Larry Stoudt and Frank Maurek were among the several defendants named in a lawsuit filed this week by police officer Fred Lahovski.Express-Times Photo | MATT SMITH

Suit alleges council run-ins with the law

Lahovski said many of the borough council members who would decide not to allow him to take a sergeant's exam for a promotion and who would eventually conspire to have him fired were upset over run-ins with the law.

Stoudt, he said, interceded on multiple occasions when Lahovski was arresting or citing friends of the councilman. In February, Stoudt entered a first-time offenders program for allegedly interfering with a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board investigation.

When one of Stoudt's friends received a traffic ticket from Lahovski, Stoudt allegedly told the man "Fred Lahovski won't have his job for long."

Herbst, the lawsuit said, tried repeatedly to get a hold of Lahovski's medical records during a hearing regarding allegations that Herbst's son was driving a car with tinted windows.

Kopach, meanwhile, exacted his revenge on Lahovski after the police officer named him as the "only suspect" in a case about illegal dumping at the Essroc Cement plant, according to the lawsuit.

Maurek would hold resentment against Lahovski for his investigation into a public urination complaint, according to the lawsuit. The officer said Maurek was caught urinating in a parking lot in January 2012, and told Lahovski he may have done so because he was suffering from "early onset dementia." Maurek was never charged because he fulfilled his end of a deal struck among officials that he resign from the borough police committee, according to Lahovski.

Former councilwoman Werner was upset with Lahovski, he claims, after her nephew was charged with drunken driving and drug offenses.

He said other council members who didn't have direct contact with him knew about these incidents, but refused to step in. Instead, Lahovski alleges, they participated in the ongoing conspiracy.

Calls to Frederick Charles, attorney for Lahovski, were not returned Friday.